Children's Liberation in 1940

The song "Young People" expresses juvenile rebellion against adults to an extent that I found surprising in a film from 1940. It shows how 12-year-old Wendy (Shirley Temple) fills all the children's heads with kids-lib ideas, which they then express to their parents in the song that Wendy stages for them. To see how strong the kids-lib message is, just look at a few of its lines and their implied meanings.

When we're in the parlor and the lights are low,
Don't bribe us with a nickel, we'll refuse to go.

Meaning: "Just because you (our parents) want to get cuddly in the living room, don't ask us to leave."

Sisters, better tell your romantic gents --
We have a minimum lover charge of fifty cents.

Meaning: "If you (our older sisters) invite your boyfriends over to make out, you'll have to pay us not to tell." That kind of kiddie-blackmail, played upon older siblings and babysitters, is so common that it's been joked about in the media for decades. (And note that "lover charge" is obviously a sarcastic parody of the term "cover charge.")

We know our table manners, when to use a knife and fork,
And we know that the Stork is a nightclub in New York.

There was indeed such a nightclub; but, just possibly, that line may have meant something like:
"You (our parents) lied to us! You didn't get us from any stork. And now we know how you DID get us." (Guess who told them?)

And probably the part most disturbing to the parents was:

We hate to hear a fairy tale before we go to bed;
We'd rather have you telling us what Walter Winchell said.

Winchell was a famous newsman and commentator who hung out at the Stork Club with New York's celebrities, and was known for having a big mouth about their "gossip" as well as current events and politics.